Reyna's Social Entrepreneurship Blog

 

Beginning:  Learning the necessary theories and concepts in understanding social entrepreneurship. Understand the potential of businesses to produce a social impact above all. Middle:  Analysis - Viewing specific examples of social businesses in practice Understanding how they operate successfully Ending:  Outcomes and impact  Sharing our understandings we learned with each other. Understanding how social businesses play a role in our lives Seeing what they produce in the world and how we can contribute 

     At the moment, I am interested in doing a social business case study. I honestly don't know which business I would choose yet. I need to become more familiar with social businesses or social enterprises. This is a good opportunity for me to explore which local or Canadian social businesses exist. I would like to choose a business that resides in my community and maybe reach out to the business owner.       I would like to discover what they are doing in terms of social well-being. I am also curious to learn why these businesses made the choice to be social. Does it make it easier or harder to operate financially? Are people more attracted to a socially focused business?      I feel like this would be a great way to dive deeper to see what makes social businesses unique. It might inspire me to build a business one day that has the same effects and to engage and buy from more of these businesses. 

     When I heard the news back in 2017 that Toys R Us was filing for bankruptcy in the U.S., my inner child felt crushed. Let me walk you through a brief time-line of my relationship history with the beloved toy store: It started when I was a young girl, and my parents would take me and my brother to Toys R Us on special occasions. I would be giddy on the car ride there and even the car ride home as I would be excited to play with my newest Littlest Pet Shop or My Little Ponies. I could spot their colourful block-lettered logo from miles away. As I got older, I noticed there were other stores I went to with my parents more often who sold a variety of appealing toys too. Trips to Walmart and Superstore suddenly got more exciting.  Even once I grew out of my My Little Ponies phase, I still would go shopping for my younger cousins’ Christmas gifts. However, big companies like Amazon stopped us from walking into any store. You could now buy toys and almost anything else...

        Sometimes I say to myself, “I don’t think I can do this,” but then I remember this story…       I was called up to the stage. It would be my first ever piano recital. I was a shy and introverted 4-year-old. My nerves immediately took over my body and I ran off stage like I was running from a monster. I hid under the arms of my dad, trying to escape the fear. I didn't want to be in the spotlight anymore and I didn’t want to do this...      Then came the next recital. This time, I had the tiniest amount of courage to get up on that stage again, and I got to perform. Actually, I got to perform many more times after that. I knew I had the talent, but I couldn’t let my nerves hold me back from doing something I loved to do. It was an enormous hurdle I had to surmount, but once I got to the piano, it was just me up there. The warmth of the stage lights hugged and welcomed me back again and again, and it soon became one of my ...